Dr. Biill McGuire, Chairman and CEO of United HealthGroup (UHG), is leaving the company. In an answer to the old question, “how much is too much?”, the answer is “$1.5 billion“.
This is, of course, the value of stock options that Dr. M received from UHG over the course of his career, a substantial portion of which were backdated to ensure he received the maximum possible payout.

Continue reading How much is too much?

Dr Mark McClellan has left his post as administrator for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). On his way out he talked about the future of the Medicare program, his views on the benefits of market-based competition, and his prediction that we are in what will be known as the biomedical century.
McClellan has garnered relatively positive reviews from across the political and editorial spectrum. By all accounts he is smart, dedicated, and a good person. That last is from a reader who knows the family and respects them. While that may all be true, I’m afraid McClellan missed a great opportunity. While he has worked diligently to promote data collection, quality and performance monitoring, and investigations of pay for performance, I have not seen much direct attention paid to practice pattern variation.
That’s a big miss.

Health Affairs, my favorite health policy magazine (and perhaps the only health policy magazine) has launched a blog. One of the first posts is by James Robinson, and is a review of Redefining Healthcare by Porter and Teisberg. I haven’t read the book so I can’t comment on Robinson’s commentary.
One of the complaints about Health Affairs is it only appears quarterly; then again, given the weighty nature of the periodical that may have been a blessing in disguise. The new blog will likely remedy that situation, although the blog’s apparent weekly posting schedule will have to be fixed if HA wants to be a meaningful player in the blog-o-sphere.
They’re just getting started, so let’s give them time.